My first event on a rather large scale.

I am going to this Main Street Festival.   I am a tad nervous, but I am going to jump in there and see what happens.  I own a hot dog cart, therefore I sell, Hot dogs, smoked, polish sausages, chips, cookies and bottled sodas and water.    I am not a complicated hot dog vendor yet.   I have the fixins for Chicagos, and pretty much everything else.   I grill and when it gets busy, I use a steam table to get them rotated.

Wish me luck and I will say, this is the best site forum to come read about solutions and I want to thank you guys in advance.


Christina and David

Kiyi


I own a hot dog cart, therefore I sell

I don't think anybodys ever put it any better. You'll do fine. Get out there and have fun. Don't forget the camera to get some pics for the website.

Being nervous means you care............To calm your nerves be way ahead of yourselves on everything. be prepared and have a list of  everything you need..............Good luck and let us know how things went, I'm sure you will do fine....................Bill

I have the camera ready:).   Yes we do care so much about this.   I wish there was an app for this site so I could stream the video from my phone so you guys can see tomorrow.   I hired clowns to assist in marketing by giving out balloon animals and do face painting.  Hopefully that will bring in traffic to my cart.

BTW we are known as King Wiener

Kiyi


I am going to this Main Street Festival.   I am a tad nervous, but I am going to jump in there and see what happens.  I own a hot dog cart, therefore I sell, Hot dogs, smoked, polish sausages, chips, cookies and bottled sodas and water.    I am not a complicated hot dog vendor yet.   I have the fixins for Chicagos, and pretty much everything else.   I grill and when it gets busy, I use a steam table to get them rotated.

Wish me luck and I will say, this is the best site forum to come read about solutions and I want to thank you guys in advance.


Christina and David

Once you get this one under your belt, they get easier. Hey over here in Lawrenceburg. Let me know how your chicago style do. I tried here just did not fly. Chili,kraut and beans
big in my area with slaw.
 55 mile difference might work.

 

They don't work here in Shelbyville as well, but in events.  I thought it might be better.

As Promised,  Here is some pics:

More...

Good looking cart!  What brand is it?


And how did you do?

No brand at all,  Well I did about 3 times the normal day in a bad location in Shelbyville.  Which is pretty damn good for us.   We are going to be starting a few things in town to get ourselves positioned to get a better location.   The unheard "policies" here are so weird.   None of it is written nor are  any of the existing policies followed.   They just do what they want.    So I am going to manipulate their mindset using a petition.

That was in Shelbyville. Are you thinking about more small stuff. Many around our area. If free next weekend Pulaski has Taste of Giles Co. They have the turkeys,ceramic, out around the square. 
I can tell you about unheard polices. Moved from Tampa to here 6.5 yrs ago and said this place needs a dog cart. HD was easy, local and county was a nitemare.
Also that looks like a Ben's cart

Just thought of one in Sept. in Fayetteville. Don't known how to get in, might be thru city parks in fayetteville.  Big Motorcyle ride and they do lunch at the park. I'm always busy that weekend and they ride rain or shine.

Nope, I talked with Ben about a cart, but I didn't purchase it from him.   He is a good person and the carts are nice, and I might get a second from him if I find the location.

Besides your product, dod you see any other vendors getting slammed? If so, what were they selling?

Great pics!

Thanks

ArnieTX

there were 6 other hot dog vendors, there was supposed to be 2.   I got there after most did and I sold more than everyone there.    No-one got slammed per se, I was pretty busy that is why I only took pictures at the beginning of the day.

I made about 400 dollars in 7 hours.

I love events that size. Setting up next to the lemonade thing is good. Sometimes I like to move right next to them--like practically on top of them (with their approval of course) because you combine to form a larger presence and draw.

Next time, give somebody a free soda for taking pics of you with a crowd. You might get the ultimate marketing shot.

Oh yeah and $400 is great for a little event like that. Don't be late again. All event types have their pace, but something like a parade, all of your sales happen BEFORE the actual event. Once a parade starts your business is basically over. Yeah you can get rid of some product fast right after but that's about it. Get out there first and you'll pick up another 20%.

I got there at 9:30am was setup and cooking by 10am, there was no parade, just a car & motorcycle show.  A ton of antiques, arts, crafts, balloons etc.  

Yeah that Lemonade/Sno Cone vendor and I got along real well.   The pictures I took were just as I setup.  It got busier about 20 minutes later.   I think I could easily take on 5 times the amount I had before with little issue.   My line never had someone wait for more than 5 minutes.   I had people leaving other vendors because of the speed.

Nice clean cart. I was looking at those umbrellas at costco where you happy with the shade? 6 dog vendors and you out sold them, thats fantastic! What was your strategy? That grill..looks like you can sell alot of product with that and your steamers.

Want a good supplier for umbrellas?

http://ewins.com/categories/1000085/0/9+Foot+Outdoor+Patio+Umbrella

Both umbrellas give great shade.  I prefer the burgundy one, but my other half insisted on the crank one.

My strategy is always be clean, never sit down and give them an experience.  Make them feel they just bought the best damn dog in the world.


Does anyone know where I can get short round 6 3/4" insets?  I found all the tall ones, just none of the shallow ones.

Hey that snowball vendor is my buddy Barry. He's a heck of a guy. We do several events a year together

Yeah He is awesome.  I talked with him for about 3 hours on and off.   Maybe we should have our own event?:)